


Give to Get

by C31PO (SirenAlpha)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 06:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14207283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenAlpha/pseuds/C31PO
Summary: Connor's seen other people's hearts before. He's even seen Nuge's heart before. He just hadn't expected it to show up like it wanted to keep him company while he was out with a busted collar bone and the team was on a roadie.





	Give to Get

**Author's Note:**

> It took way longer than I expected to get this out. I'm throwing it out here just to be done with it and move on with my life. I wanted it to be like 2k and fluffy about magical hearts, but then I kept getting distracted by writing about Connor and young adulthood problems. 
> 
> The only other note was originally I was going to title this Fickle Heart, but then I started listening to Game to Lose by I'm with Her and was like this is better so that's where the title's from.

Connor wakes to an empty house. He sighs because he has a long day ahead of him and too few things to fill it with. The downsides of being an NHLer; you get injured before you meet anyone in town who doesn’t leave for roadies except for your physical therapist. His therapist doesn’t even like him and probably just thinks he’s an idiot.

He forces himself out of bed, wincing as it moves his broken collar bone. He doesn’t want to get dressed for real and thankfully doesn’t have to because nobody will see him. He pulls on sweatpants he’d left on his bedroom floor and goes to get a clean shirt out of his dresser. He freezes when he catches sight of a heart sitting innocently on the edge of his dresser and it’s not Dylan’s.

He practically holds his breath as he peers down at it, half expecting the heart to realize this was the wrong spot and disappear. Given that this was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ heart though, it probably didn’t give a shit. Hallsy had once called it an outdoor cat; Nuge let it out once and now it feels like it can do whatever it pleases to Nuge’s eternal distress.

The first thing Hallsy had ever told him about Nuge’s heart was to not mess with it and let Hallsy take care of it. Hallsy’s not there, of course, so Connor takes the next most reasonable course of action. He pokes Nuge’s heart. It rocks a little at the touch, but it doesn’t disappear like he’d half expected it to.

Connor changes into a clean shirt as quickly as he can, which with a broken collar bone is actually several minutes of trying not to hurt himself. He then carefully picks up Nuge’s heart. Now that he can get a good look at it, the heart’s different for more than its behavior. Or it’s at least different from the admittedly few hearts he’s seen.

Nuge’s heart is brown and looks like a cut gemstone designed to reflect as much light as possible. Connor’s heart looks like blown glass with grey-blue streaks rather than solid color. Hearts, being magical objects, had no constraint that required them to feel how they looked. It had taken Connor 17 years and a visit to an aquarium to figure out what the hell his heart felt like. Dylan had shoved his hand in the ray touch tank, pulled it out, and said, “Dude, your heart feels exactly like a stingray.”

Connor had said, “Ew,” quickly followed by, “Why?”

Dylan made the universal noise for ‘I don’t know’, and said, “It’s your fucking heart.”

Nuge’s heart, thankfully, does not feel like sea creature skin. It feels like really soft leather. “Figures,” Connor tells the heart.

Connor has a heart like a half finished art project with fish skin, and Nuge has a perfectly cut gemstone decked in expensive leather. He tucks the heart into his bad hand because leaving it alone for the whole week the team is gone seems mean, and he needs to remember not to use his bad hand anyways. He collects his phone then heads to the kitchen as he texts Dylan.

**Found Nuge** **’s heart** he tells him because it’s the most exciting thing to happen to either of them in the past week.

**Are you replacing me as your bffl??? I thought we had something special**

Connor snorts and rolls his eyes. He grabs himself some food to eat before answering Dylan. **Nuges heart is weird it kinda just does whatever like Ive seen equipment guys hand it back to him**.

**How do you know he** **’s not bffls with the equipment guy**

**Nuge is not bffls with the equipment guy never seen a guy so relieved to get his heart back.**

**Woah is your equipment guy a heart creeper? Quick Davo mail me your heart you can afford express intl shipping now!**

**Im not fucking mailing you my heart**  
**The equipment guy is fine its just Nuges heart**  
 **He’s literally that grateful to get his heart back from everyone who shows up with it and trust me everyone ends up with it at some point.**

**Is it the oilers like hazing ritual ur only a true oiler if u find the nuges heart?**  
**Ur a real boy now davo**  
 **Tbh that just makes it sound like the whole team has to love the nuge**  
 **Like what r ur intangibles?**  
 **Oh I just love the nuge a whole lot it gives me extra grit**

**Yeah its going to be nuges heart that gives the team grit**

**Yes it would totally work its like knights winning a lady** **’s favor before the joust**

**Sure stromer thats exactly how it works** he has to shake his head because he’s somewhere between laughing and rolling his eyes at Dylan’s logic.

**Dont get pissy because u cant win a game now that youve won the favor** and Connor frowns at the mention of his injury, but then Dylan adds, **Also how are you planning on returning his heart?**

Connor shrugs with his good shoulder even though Dylan can’t see him. **Gotta wait for him to get back to Edmonton first**

**Dare you to hide it in a bouquet of roses**

**Only if you do it to Mitch first**

Dylan stops responding to Connor’s texts. Connor looks down at Nuge’s heart still nestled in his hand. “You’re my only friend now.”

The heart doesn’t respond (because it’s a heart, obviously), but it makes the joke sound sad rather than funny. Connor ignores that, finishes eating his breakfast, and goes to find something on tv so he can live like a college kid taking a gap year. Actually, he has no idea what gap years are like but he assumes it involves doing a lot of nothing. Connor’s not good at that, but it’s all he has to do right now. Day time tv doesn’t help so he pretty quickly ends up face down on the couch bemoaning his general existence because if he were really the next next one or whatever he wouldn’t have gotten injured.

In the silence of his boredom, Nuge’s heart beats loudly in the hand of his busted arm. He brushes his fingers over the heart, thinking of how the tendons of his fingers lead up to his shoulder to his broken collar bone and how the muscle of Nuge’s heart pounds strong and healthy miles away at a practice Connor can’t participate in. He shuffles around so he can get a look at the heart without hurting his shoulder. Dylan’s teased him plenty of times for his heart lighting up during practice and games, but Nuge’s does nothing of the sort. It looks the same as it had earlier sitting on Connor’s dresser.

Connor sighs and gets up from the couch to look for something to occupy himself with. He almost manages to forget how weird Nuge’s heart is by the time Nuge texts him that night.

**Do you have my heart?**

Connor checks behind himself before remembering that with a good amount of concentration you can find out who has your heart. Hardly anybody ever does it though because usually only people close to you ever get it and they’ll return it to you until you officially exchange it. **Yeah I** **’ve got it** he texts him then worries if he should have texted him about it earlier.

**Ok you can just leave it alone and I can come pick it up when we get back**

Connor frowns at the message, not familiar enough with Nuge to tell if he meant to imply he thought Connor would fuck up his heart. **No worries I can take care of it promise :)** he sends him to assure him and promising to hassle Hallsy if he’s been saying shit to Nuge about him.

**You dont need to do that it** **’ll be fine on its own**

**It** **’s really not a problem** he texts back, close to insisting that Nuge can check with Dylan that he’s way good with friends’ hearts. It’s not like he has anything better to do than look out for an inanimate object that’s also a representation of a teammate’s soul anyways. It’ll be the best looked after heart ever.

**Seriously you dont need to feel obligated to look after my weird heart for a whole week just because it showed up at Hallsy** **’s place**

Connor frowns, feeling like he’s been looking at this the wrong way around. Yeah, Nuge’s heart is definitely pretty fucking weird, but it’s not like it showing up was meaningless or a huge problem just because it moves around a lot. It wasn’t like Connor happened upon it in some random part of the house either. It showed up on his dresser.

Connor grips Nuge’s heart tight as he answers back. **If you really want me to leave it alone I will but it** **’s really not a problem it did show up on my dresser after all**

Nuge doesn’t respond for a few minutes. Then he sends, **Ok then if ur sure**

**Im sure**

And that’s how Nuge’s heart became Connor’s bosom companion (see what he did there? Actually Dylan came up with it because Connor’s sense of humor goes offline when he’s loopy with cabin fever). He’d even brought the heart into his physical therapy appointment. His therapist gave him a weird look the entire two seconds it took him to tuck the heart safely away in his pocket.

“You haven’t been carrying that in your bad hand the whole time, have you?” he asks.

“Yes,” Connor answers slowly, hoping not to get yelled at.

The therapist just mutters under his breath so Connor assumes it’s okay and goes right back to doing it once the appointment is over.

The morning the team is due back, Connor actually feels bad that he’s going to have to give it back. Sure, it’s a little weird and goes wherever it feels like, but it’s still a good little heart. Nuge had even been pretty happy over the week despite the Oilers’ losses so it had kind of been like carrying around a puppy all week. He gives it a little goodbye kiss when Hallsy texts him that they’re on their way back with Nuge in tow.

Hallsy gets the door open, and then Nuge brushes right past him to get to Connor. Nuge snatches his heart out of Connor’s hand before he can even get a word out to him. He quickly checks it over and then holds it away from Connor like they’re both four and he expects Connor to snatch it back just because it’s shiny. He then heads back out the door, skirting around Hallsy in the process, and leaves without saying anything.

“Congrats,” Hallsy tells him. “You’ve managed to make him fucking weirder about his heart than he already was.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he says, opening and closing his hand to make sure that had actually happened.

“I wouldn’t call literally holding onto his heart all week nothing,” he says and begins hauling his things towards his room.

“I just looked after it. I didn’t do anything special,” he insists, following after Hallsy.

“That is special to Nuge. It never sticks around anywhere that long. It’s practically fickle,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“It didn’t seem that fickle to me.”

“Yeah, well, Nuge’s self conscious enough about it as it is. I told you to let me handle it.”

“He said it was okay,” he says defensively.

Hallsy stares at him for a moment then sighs and rubs his hands over his face. “Look, Davo, it’s been a long week and I need a nap. If you wanna solve the mysteries of Nuge’s heart, all the power to you. Just let me finish unpacking.”

“Yup, sorry, going,” he says, reminding himself that just because he was stuck alone for a week doesn’t mean Hallsy wants company immediately.

Life goes somewhat back to normal in that Connor can at least watch practices and games to have something to do. Nuge, however, gives him weird looks and does a rather good job of avoiding him.

“Do I need to apologize to Nuge?” he asks Hallsy because it’s way easier to get an answer out of him than Nuge. “I feel like he’s mad at me.”

“I don’t think he’s mad at you. Have you asked him if he’s mad at you?”

Connor makes a face, “I tried. He said he wasn’t.”

“Then he’s not,” he says, laughing.

“He seemed angry when he said it.”

“You’re just over thinking things. He’d tell you if there was a problem.”

“If you’re sure,” he mumbles because he doesn’t want press if there’s no issue but it definitely feels like an issue.

He’s still not sure until the Oilers have left on their next road trip. In the middle of getting himself comfortable on the couch for a movie marathon, he accidentally shoves his hand under the couch cushion and comes up with Nuge’s heart. “He doesn’t hate me,” he says, raising his hands in victory, unbalancing himself, and falling off the couch.

“Ow,” he moans to himself, curling up into a ball. He hadn’t landed directly on his bad shoulder, but jarring his back was plenty. He eventually pulls himself up back onto the couch. He checks over Nuge’s heart, and he can’t find any signs of damage. He breathes out a sigh of relief.

He gets his phone and texts Nuge, **I** **’ve got your heart again**

Nuge doesn’t respond immediately so Connor goes back to what he originally planned to do and turns on the tv. He goes back and forth between messing around on apps on his phone and fiddling with Nuge’s heart. He finds it soothing to run his fingers over the heart and feel the pulse. He tries to think his gratitude to Nuge at his heart because even if doesn’t really work that way and Nuge didn’t mean for it, he still finds it comforting.

Nuge eventually texts him back **Yeah I noticed**

**Is that bad?** he asks, suddenly worried he’s done something wrong.

**No I can just tell its you**

**Okay well I** **’m taking good care of it**

**Yeah, I noticed that too**

Connor can feel his cheeks heating, and he tightens his grasp around Nuge’s heart. **I** **’m just doing what any good friend would do**

**It** **’s fine I’m not worried Davo**

**Okay just checking because you were a little weird last time no offense**

Nuge doesn’t answer for a few minutes. Connor spends the time anxiously waiting for a response, split between thinking he’d offended Nuge anyways or that Nuge had to be dragged off to something.

**I said I wasn** **’t mad and I meant it you didn’t do anything wrong**  
**I’m not used to having anyone hold onto my heart for that long so it was a little overwhelming and I didn’t know what to say**  
 **Sorry**

Connor sighs because he still feels a little bit like he’s done something wrong. He guesses overwhelmed could explain Nuge’s behavior given how antsy he gets about his heart, but he hadn’t said anything at all. **You don** **’t have to apologize you can do what you want with your heart**

**Davo you took good care of me  
I** **’m apologizing because I didn’t return the kindness you showed me**  
**Thank you for taking care of my heart and sorry for not saying it sooner**

Connor tosses his phone at the other end of the couch trying to get a handle on all the emotions Nuge’s sincerity dredges up. Dylan’s never this nice to him when he takes care of his heart. Probably because Connor would make fun of him for being sensitive, but it’s so nice and sweet coming from Nuge. He’s seen Nuge thank other people for bringing back his heart, and he can clearly imagine exactly how Nuge would look and sound saying that to him. He feels like a little puddle of goo.

His phone buzzes at the other end of the couch. He forces himself to go and get it just in case it’s something important. It’s another text from Nuge.

**What are you doing? You** **’re making my heart feel all jumpy**

Connor then realizes that he still has Nuge’s heart clutched in his bad hand and that it passed all of his excess feelings straight to Nuge.

**Nothing** Connor sends immediately **I** **’m good**

Then he wants to smack himself in the face because that’s not a weird or suspicious thing to text back, especially after someone’s just been really nice to you. He takes a moment to breathe and actually think over his words, grateful to be typing this rather than trying to say it to Nuge.

**You** **’re welcome and I accept your apology  
You’ve got a good heart and it’s really no trouble to take care of it but it’s still nice of you to say all that**

After a moment he then sends Nuge a line of heart emojis because what he sent feels too awkward and formal.

**Okay thanks Davo :)**

**Are we just gonna keep saying thank you back and forth**

**I wouldn** **’t mind it saying thank you is nice**

**No saying thank you is awkward you only think saying thank you is nice because you** **’re all cute about it**

Connor has already hit send by the time he thinks enough about what he’s saying to regret it.

“Oh no,” he whispers to himself as he cringes and smacks his phone against his forehead. Then his phone buzzes against his forehead.

**You think I** **’m cute when I say thank you?**

Connor panics, looking around the room like the words to get out of this situation unscathed will be written on the wall somewhere.

Nuge texts him again. **Is that what made you make my heart feel all jumpy?**

Connor quickly sends him **No**

A text comes from Nuge at the same time his text gets delivered. **How do you handle any flirting if you get that worked up over a thank you**

Connor’s stomach sinks as he suddenly realizes that Nuge isn’t angry that Connor called him cute. No, he’s teasing him about finding him cute. It sounds better, but feels as mortifying as that time Dylan thought pantsing him on school grounds would be funny.

Nuge sends another text **You can** **’t lie to me when you’ve still got my heart and you’re still making my heart feel jumpy btw**

**Its your fault!** Connor sends back because it’s the only thing he can latch onto at the moment.

**Never said it wasn** **’t**

Connor squints at the text because while he doesn’t really think of Nuge as a smirky guy it seems to have a smirky tone. He sends **And I can flirt just fine**

**I** **’ll believe that when I see it**

Connor can at least admit he did walk into that. His brain stalls out as he tries to work out a comeback that doesn’t leave an opening for Nuge to keep teasing him. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches sight of Nuge’s heart in his hand and he stops. Nuge’s heart glows, peeking out between his fingers about as brightly as a dying glow stick, but nonetheless glowing.

**I gtg** he texts Nuge then sets his phone and the heart down on the coffee table and runs away.

His quick escape is thwarted by stubbing his toe into the couch. He spends the next minute hopping around and swearing in pain, but at least his mind is off Nuge. He spends a few minutes pacing the room to get his heart rate back down. He goes back to sit on the couch again and picks up his phone. He finds two messages from Nuge.

**Where do you have to go youre injured  
Whatever I need to get going too**

Connor sighs because he just bolted from some kind of opportunity. He shoves his phone into his pocket and picks up Nuge’s heart again.

He doesn’t talk to Nuge about his heart for the rest of the week because he gets to take a short visit to Erie to visit Stromer and probably also because Nuge is busy being an NHLer. The trip does give Connor a slight problem as he worries about how to take Nuge’s heart along with him. Eventually, he finds the necklace and its accompanying pendant clasp for a heart he had gotten in case Stromer’s heart showed up with him and he couldn’t get it back to him immediately. It takes a few minutes of fiddling with its latching mechanism to get Nuge’s heart safely secured. He then tucks the heart under his shirt because it seems wrong to have it out so obviously when Nuge hasn’t exchanged with him.

Connor suffers through a long international, cross country flight anxiously anticipating getting to see Dylan. He doesn’t disappoint, wrapping Connor up in a hug as soon as he sees him.

“Missed you, buddy,” Connor tells him.

“Missed you more,” Dylan says, squeezing him tighter and taking a deep breath in.

“I’m so tired,” he says, and he doesn’t mean just from the flight.

“I know,” he says, and he does. He lets Connor go so they can get in the car and Dylan can drive them to his billet house. They turn the radio on low as they drive and talk over it without saying anything in particular.

“Is it weird to miss here a little bit?” Connor asks as he follows Dylan into the house.

“You only miss here because I’m here,” Dylan says, wrapping an arm around Connor’s shoulders. “You’d be worse off than me if you had to still be here.”

Connor rolls his eyes. “I meant your billet house, dumb-dumb.”

“Oh, well,” Dylan shrugs. “Pretty sure that’s still about me. Come on, let’s go get you settled.”

Getting Connor settled means dropping his overnight bag just inside the door of Dylan’s room, crawling onto the bed, and then holding onto Dylan like he’d float off into space if he let go for even a moment. Dylan, of course, cuddles him in return and rubs Connor’s back, taking extra time on Connor’s bad shoulder. Connor relaxes, letting the exhaustion and comfort wash over him in equal measure. It almost drowns out the ache for all of this because even though he has it for the moment it’ll be gone just as quickly as it came.

“Edmonton sucks,” Connor says, sometime after enough time of just soaking in Dylan.

“I know. It’s a terrible city.”

“Come live with me?”

Dylan sighs. “You know why I can’t.”

“I know.”

Connor’s phone buzzes.

“You can answer it,” Dylan says. “I wanna check my phone, too.”

“’Kay,” he says, pulling his phone out. The notification tells him he has a snap from Hallsy. He opens it up.

The snap features a selfie of Hallsy lying down in a hotel bed and looking amused. Behind him, Nuge lies on his side with his back to Hallsy though he has his head resting on his arm. The snap’s caption reads **U turned him into some sort of grumpy cat**

Connor can’t help smiling at the photo. He messages Hallsy, **What makes u think I had anything to do w it?**

**He said it was you and you** **’ve made him weird before**

Over the next few minutes, he gets updates from Hallsy then Ebs then Drat as more people pile into the hotel room to take advantage of Nuge finally opening up for PDA. Nuge looks more and more annoyed in the pics as people join in, but he’s also not pushing anybody away.  Connor pulls out Nuge’s heart from underneath his shirt just to check anyways. The heart glows a little so Nuge’s face is probably just for show in the pics.

“Woah,” Dylan says, grabbing Connor’s wrist and pulling it up higher. “Is that Nugent-Hopkins’ heart?”

“Yeah,” he says.

“You carry it around with you now?”

“When it shows up while the team is on a roadie, I told you about it.”

“You said you were looking after it not carrying it around your neck.”

“I was coming to visit you. What else could I have done with it?”

“Put it in your pocket or pack it away like a normal person.”

“I got this necklace in case your heart showed up,” Connor says, giving him a flat look.

“Yeah, but Nugent-Hopkins isn’t me,” Dylan says then he squints at Connor. “Do you like him?”

Connor sort of shrugs at him. “Yeah, of course, he’s a teammate. He’s a good guy.”

Dylan looks at him like he’s stupid. “Do you like-like him?”

“Like-like him? Are we back in middle school now?” Connor asks.

Dylan pinches his chest. “You know what I mean.”

“Ow,” Connor says, sitting up and rubbing the injured area. “That’s so mean after I came all this way to visit you.”

“It’s because you’re avoiding the question. Do you like Nugent-Hopkins in a non-teammate friendly way?”

“No.”

“Liar,” Dylan says without any hint of hesitance.

“Then why did you ask if you weren’t going to listen to my answer,” Connor asks, raising his hands.

“You had to say something for me to tell if it was a lie, though honestly I was figuring you would tell the truth because I’m your best friend and won’t judge you,” Dylan says, putting his hand over his chest. “Even though you were the asshole that laughed in my face when I said Mitch wasn’t all bad for the first time.”

Connor scoffs because they’ve had this argument a hundred times, “I did not laugh at you. It was just funny.”

“Whatever, my point is you like Nugent-Hopkins enough to be carrying his heart around with you like that.”

“I’m just taking care of it. I haven’t even known him long enough to really like him, anyways.”

“You think he’s cute though,” Dylan says. “Or something.”

“Or something,” he admits, cuddling up against Dylan again.

“Well, good luck with it. I know how good you are with emotions.”

“Leave my emotions alone. They’re fine.”

“Sure, whatever you say, bud.”

Connor sighs and returns to his phone. He decides to text Nuge. **Quit acting like you don** **’t like the cuddling**

**I** **’m not acting I want to be left alone now but some people wont go** Nuge texts back far more quickly than Connor expected him to.

**But your hearts all glowy**

**Because you** **’re extremely happy and you made me want company which is why I’m even here in the first place**

Connor feels bad for a moment, putting so much extra emotion out while holding onto Nuge’s heart that he starts behaving differently. He wraps his hand around the heart, intending to send some sort of non-verbal apology, but stops when he gets a clearer look at Nuge’s emotions from it.

**You liar**

**;P**

Connor shakes his head. He can’t imagine Nuge making a face like the emoji he sent, but the face he imagines Nuge making, a small sneaky smile with a quick eyebrow raise, is funny enough. Nuge may not want to go out and hug the world the way Mitch or Dylan might, but he’s warm and happy to be surrounded by his boys. Connor kind of wishes they could all get together for something like that. Just mash his friend groups into one whole. He feels like he’s split apart into three different places, bits off him broken off and left behind in each one.

He sighs and cuddles closer to Dylan. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Dylan says back, giving him a squeeze.

“Thanks for having me over,” Connor says like this is any other night they’d have a sleep over. He never said anything like this on the nights he slept over.

“No problem,” Dylan says. “You’re always welcome.”

They get one day together, and they spend it on Dylan’s couch with whatever Otters Connor played with who are still in town and available to stop by. Then, Dylan drives Connor back to the airport. Dylan’s not supposed to park the car in the drop off lane, but he does it anyways to get out and hug Connor one last time.

“Sure you can’t stay and live with me?” Dylan asks.

Connor sighs. “You know I can’t.”

“Still, thought I’d ask, just in case,” he says, letting Connor go. “Have a safe flight.”

“I’ll text you when I get home.”

Connor flies home just fine without any delays or troubles. He texts Dylan he made it once he gets back to Hallsy’s then passes right the fuck out. It’s not until he wakes up in the morning and can hear Hallsy moving around that he realizes that Nuge didn’t come by to pick up his heart.

For half a second, Connor assumes that the heart disappeared on its own and made its way back to Nuge. Hallsy says he’s seen it happen before. Then he tugs on his necklace and can see the heart is still tucked away safely inside the clasp. He releases the necklace and lays there for a minute trying to figure out what happened.

He gets up and makes himself presentable. He finds Hallsy staring into the fridge. “Hey,” Connor says.

Hallsy jumps, looks at Connor than back to the fridge. “Oh, hey.”

“Nuge didn’t come by last night?”

“Nuge?” Hallsy asks.

“Yeah, I’ve still got his heart. Why didn’t he come by for it?”

Hallsy doesn’t say anything for a moment then he closes the fridge and turns to Connor. “You what?”

“I’ve got Nuge’s heart still. He didn’t come to pick it up like he did last time. Was something up?”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “He didn’t say anything about it on the flight home. Maybe he’s coming by this morning for it. I thought it’d made it’s way back to him on its own.”

“Oh, well if he’s coming by this morning, that’s fine,” Connor says. “Also, we don’t have milk.”

Hallsy turns towards the fridge. “Oh, that’s why I couldn’t find it.”

Connor tries really hard not to laugh at half-capacity, morning Hallsy.

Nuge’s first thing in the morning comes rather close to noon.

“What took you so long?” Hallsy calls from the living room when Connor answers the door. “Scared you’d get cuddled again?”

“Shut up, Hallsy,” Nuge calls back to him then turns to Connor. “Why do you live with him?”

“I thought that would be self explanatory,” Connor says. “Did something happen last night? Why didn’t you get your heart then?”

“Thought we could both use the sleep since I knew it would be taken care of,” he says with an easy shrug.

“Oh, uh, okay then.”

Nuge looks at him, and Connor doesn’t know what for until he realizes that he’s waiting for him to hand his heart over.

“Here’s your heart,” Connor says, holding the heart out with his bad hand. He’d pulled it out of the necklace earlier, for some reason not wanting Nuge to see it in the clasp.

“Thanks,” Nuge says, holding out his hands for Connor to drop his heart into. “For everything, Davo.”

“You’re welcome,” Connor says, willing himself not to blush after letting Nuge know what he thought about his thank yous. “Are, uh, are you gonna stay? We’re going to have lunch soon.”

“No, sorry, I’ve got to get going,” he says, and he does seem genuinely apologetic.

“Oh, well, I guess I’ll see you later then.”

“Yeah, bye,” Nuge says, sending him one last smile before heading back to his car.

“Bye.”

Connor closes the door with a sigh and hears something that sounds like a little stone hitting the wood floors. He looks down and sees his little blue-gray heart sitting between his feet and the closed door. “No,” he says, quickly scooping up his heart. “Shut up, Stromer is not right.”

“Davo?” Hallsy calls from the living room, and Connor suddenly feels like he’s been caught stealing from the cookie jar. “You good? Is Nuge okay?”

“Yeah, all good,” Connor says before roughly shoving his heart back into his chest. It’ll stay where it is if it knows what’s good for it.

The Oilers have only one shorter road trip in December, which is nice because it means way less time being alone in a house for Connor. Nuge’s heart doesn’t show up at all over the road trip. Connor tries not to get offended because Nuge and his heart can do what they want, but it does make staying home alone injured extra sucky.

The Oilers squeeze in a holiday party between getting back from the roadie and everyone leaving again to go home or visit relatives for the holidays. Connor thinks it’s great to get out of the house and back amongst his people, but within five minutes finds himself hanging out in corners feeling like a pissed off house cat with just way too many people around. At least it’s legal for him to drink and he can blend in by participating in the beer drinking.

He retreats towards another secluded area after getting edged out of another conversation and stops short. He creeps over to the end table, shoves aside a little poinsettia and finds Nuge’s heart. He looks around, but doesn’t spot Nuge immediately. He carefully picks up the heart and goes to look for him.

Connor finds Hallsy first. “Hey, have you seen Nuge?”

“A little bit ago, why? Got a Christmas gift for him?” Hallsy asks. “Which, if you do, that’s super rude because you did not get me one, and I house you.”

“It’s not a Christmas gift, just want to know where he is.”

“That way,” Hallsy says, gesturing towards the dining room. “That’s where I saw him last anyways.”

“Thanks,” he says, giving Hallsy a pat on the shoulder before moving away.

Connor does find Nuge in the dining room, right as he’s in the middle of setting out some cookies for dessert. He heads back to the kitchen without even noticing Connor. A couple of the wives are helping bring out other plates of desserts. He decides that there’s about to be way too many people in the room to give Nuge his heart back so he snitches a cookie and retreats to the living room.

Drat notices the cookie, “Hey, they’ve got desserts out now?”

“Yeah, got in early,” Connor says and smiles.

Drat gets up from his spot on the couch, heading for the dining room, and Connor sits down in it.

“Think I have to go now to get some?” Nurse asks from his seat next to him.

“Probably,” Connor says and finishes his cookie. Nurse sighs and leaves as well.

Connor expects Nuge to be out quickly, but Drat and Nurse both return to the couch without Nuge making an appearance. Connor occupies himself with stealing Drat’s extra brownies while he isn’t looking.

“You already took my spot, quit stealing my food,” Drat tells him.

“How do you know it’s me?”

Drat gives him a look. “You literally have crumbs on your face.”

“Touché.”

Drat rolls his eyes, and Connor does his best to brush off any crumbs.

Nuge, however, finally shows up which saves Connor from any more of Drat’s disdain of his lying skills.

“Nuge, over here,” Connor calls out to him, first waving at him then motioning for him to come over.

Nuge looks amused by all the waving, and he makes his way over to the couch. Connor expects to be able to just hand his heart back over without making a spectacle, but instead, Nuge takes a seat in his lap.

“Hey, Nuge,”  Drat says, clearly holding in laughter.

“Hey,” Nuge says back brightly, and Connor becomes aware that Nuge is definitely drunk. Connor’s not totally sober, doubts anyone at the party is, but Nuge doesn’t like beer. Nuge likes mixed drinks and cocktails that are heavy on the liquor which Connor suspects is the reason he’s in good with most of the WAGs, but he has no proof.

“Nuge,” Connor says quietly so he can get his attention without alarming him.

“Yes?” Nuge asks as he leans back against him.

“Uh,” Connor stalls as he tries to remember what he was going to say. “I found your heart. You should take it back.”

“Oh, you found it?” he asks, sounding way less concerned about it than he normally does. “Where was it?”

“Just on some side table,” he says as he gets his arm halfway around Nuge to show him his heart.

“Thanks for picking it up,” Nuge says cheerily. He puts his hand over his heart, but then he doesn’t move it from Connor’s hand.

“Nuge?” Connor asks, but Nuge is already talking to Drat about football, the non-American kind.

Connor has no idea what to do with Nuge’s heart and hand in his. He has a much clearer idea of how drunk Nuge is; very alcohol drunk but also a little drunk on enthusiasm for the Christmas season. He can even tell that Nuge is comfortable sitting in his lap, pleased even, and his heart beats away steadily between their palms. It’s a lot, having Nuge warm and heavy against him and pouring light, bubbling emotions into him, so he just puts his head down against Nuge’s shoulder and tries to breath.

“You good, Davo?” Drat asks.

Connor doesn’t know what to say, but he doesn’t want to lift his head and reveal what is surely an extremely strong blush going by how hot his cheeks are. Nuge laughs, quietly enough that it doesn’t disturb Connor’s position at all.

“He’s fine,” Nuge says, reaching over his shoulder to pet Connor’s hair. “He’s just a little overwhelmed.”

“By what?” Nurse asks, laughing.

Drat, however, nods. “That’s what you get for fucking stealing my brownies.”

Connor pretends to ignore all of Nuge to defend his honor. “You took too many. You didn’t need to eat them all.”

“But it was okay for you to?”

“Yes.”

Drat rolls his eyes and shakes his head, and Nuge laughs. Connor finds it easier to act like a person and pick his head off of Nuge’s shoulder. They continue to talk and nobody makes it a thing that Nuge is just sitting in Connor’s lap which Connor is grateful for. It makes Nuge comfortable enough to gradually and slowly, relax and lean back into Connor.

He almost complains when, at the end of the night, Nuge gets up from his lap and takes his heart with him. At least he gets a hug goodbye from him before he has to go out and brace the cold to get back home with Hallsy and Gaz.

The trip home to Ontario is uneventful, but his holidays are far from relaxing. Instead of melting into the couch, eating a shit ton of chocolate, and bingeing holiday movies with his family like he had as a little kid, he’s instead running around the entire town trying to meet up with every friend possible as if he hadn’t picked up a career like all of the rest of the people he knew his age. He barely even sleeps at his parents’ house.

“Why are you even back here?” Hallsy asks when he returns to Edmonton at the same time as the rest of the team. “You’re still injured.”

“I’d have even less to do if I was home,” Connor says, and doesn’t mention that Nuge is very far away from Ontario.

“I mean, I’d never pass up real cooking, but you do you.”

The whole team is gone for Connor’s birthday, but Hallsy gets a group of the guys together and sends him a video of them singing happy birthday. He texts back a thank you to all of them, and he can’t stop himself from adding a little extra attention to his text to Nuge. He wants to say something about his heart, but he deletes the words before he sends the text.

Hallsy brings him home a store bought cake. “I think you’d like this better than my cooking.”

“Got that right,” Connor says, and he eats a slice with Hallsy even though the cake is dry and kind of terrible.

Connor gets to attend the Oilers’ game against Calgary even if he doesn’t like watching from the press box. It feels wrong watching from that high up. Still, he watches diligently until one moment he’s watching Nuge skate and the next he glances down and finds himself staring down at Nuge’s heart, resting innocently next to hand.

Connor snatches it up before anyone else can notice and ask any questions. He clenches his hand tightly around it and wills his own heart to calm down and stop pounding. It’s difficult when he can’t help thinking that it means something that Nuge’s heart appeared to him when they’re both in the same place. He can feel Nuge’s calm driven focus in the palm of his hand.

He sits through the rest of the game, turning Nuge’s heart over and over in his hand and watching his back. He cheers when his team wins in the shootout. He can feel Nuge’s happiness flooding him through his heart. As Nuge heads off the ice and Connor makes his way down to the locker room, his nerves make a sudden appearance. Not a butterfly feeling in his stomach, rather the sort of crackling energy he gets before important games.

“Good game guys,” he shouts at them as he enters the room. Some of them shout back. Hallsy gets him in a sweaty headlock even though Connor’s wearing a suit.

Connor catches Nuge’s eye. Nuge shakes his head. Connor nods, and Hallsy notices.

“Is that-,” he starts, looking down at Connor’s hand. He whips around to look at Nuge. Nuge has already turned away to finish undressing. Hallsy turns back to him. “Connor.”

“Yeah?” he asks, faking for innocent even though Hallsy never uses his name.

“How many times has Nuge’s heart shown up with you?” he asks.

“I’m not counting,” he says. He’s hoping he doesn’t need to. “You’ve got media. I’ll see you after.”

He starts to move towards the exit, but Hallsy catches him by the elbow. “Connor, you’re-.”

“What?” he asks, wondering what’s suddenly Hallsy’s problem.

Hallsy looks frustrated but it doesn’t seem to be directed at Connor. “Nuge is a good guy. I believe that. It’s just, you’re young.”

Connor frowns at him. “So?” he asks, and he can’t help the challenge that creeps into his voice.

Hallsy sighs. “This isn’t the time or place for this, damn it. Just, it’s not a fairytale, having hearts showing up like that.”

“I know,” he says even though he’s not sure he does. Hallsy has somehow cut through to the worst of his doubts, that it can just slip through his hands like loosing an edge at the wrong moment. Nuge already isn’t like any fairytale Connor’s ever dreamed of when he was younger, but being in the NHL isn’t anything like he’d dreamed it would be either. What’s so wrong about still wanting it though? “I’m not expecting anything.”

Hallsy considers him for a moment then nods. “Okay. You should head out before media gets to you.”

“I’ll see you,” he says as he starts to leave again, and he can’t help a last look at Nuge before he goes. Hallsy’s his ride so he finds a place to chill away from any reporters and distract himself from thinking too hard about Nuge’s heart.

Hallsy eventually finds him once he’s finished up and back in his game day suit. Connor isn’t really surprised to see Nuge with him. Still, he gives Hallsy a look.

Hallsy huffs. “I already gave him the riot act and told him that he could follow you home like a lovesick puppy because lord knows you would both die if you tried to have a conversation about your feelings in a fucking hockey arena.”

Nuge shoots Hallsy a rather scathing glare for his little speech, but Connor can tell by the little heart in his hand that he isn’t genuinely upset. “You sure have a way with words, Hallsy,” Nuge says dryly.

“Hey, I am being nice,” he says. “C’mon, let’s get this show on the road.”

Connor rolls his eyes. “If you’re going to be grumpy and Nuge is coming along anyways, can I get a ride with him?”

“No,” Hallsy says at the same time Nuge says, “Yes.”

Hallsy glares and Nuge grins back at him. Hallsy shakes his head and storms off towards the parking garage. Connor walks with Nuge at a more sedate pace. “He’s just mad he can’t eavesdrop,” Nuge explains because obviously he and Connor are going to talk in the car now.

“Why would he want to?” Connor asks, wrinkling his nose.

“To make sure nothing goes wrong because he’s a little busybody,” he says. “He’s been like that since I was a rookie.”

Nuge was Hallsy’s first rookie so he would know.

When they reach Nuge’s car and he unlocks the door, Connor only hesitates for a moment before pulling open the passenger door and climbing in. Nuge, however, stands in the open doorway of the driver’s door. He digs his hand into his pocket, and pulls something out of his pocket. It takes Connor a moment to recognize it as his heart. His free hand immediately goes to his chest. He hadn’t even realized it had left him.

Nuge offers it out to him. “I don’t think either of us is ready to exchange hearts so I think you should take this back.”

“Yeah, of course,” he says, a little embarrassed to have Nuge holding his ugly fish skin heart without giving him some kind of explanation for it. He takes it back, replacing it with Nuge’s heart.

Nuge puts his heart back in his chest before getting in the car, and Connor follows his lead. Nuge buckles in and starts the car, and now that Connor has him, he doesn’t know what to say. He runs his hand through his hair, trying to figure out where to start.

“I think it’s pretty clear that we’re both interested in each other,” Nuge says diplomatically.

“That’s definitely one way of putting it,” he says. “It’s just-.”

He stalls and watches as Nuge drives. It’s dark in the car, but the headlights from the traffic around them give off enough light to see his profile. He seems completely inscrutable in the low light. Connor has gotten to know him better since starting with the Oilers, especially since his heart started showing, but there’s so much more he doesn’t know. Connor wants to know, but he isn’t sure how to ask. He wants a lot actually, too much sometimes, all of the time really. And he has no idea how to say any of it.

“Yeah?” Nuge prompts when he doesn’t say anymore.

“I know that this kind of all started as an accident, with the way your heart showed up and everything,” he says, “but I want to see where this goes, if that’s alright.”

“Yeah, it’s alright. I want that, too,” he says then takes in a deep breath and lets it out. “There’s a lot I could say, that I want to say, but maybe for now it’s okay if we just keep things simple. Scheduling dates with an NHL schedule will be complicated enough even when we’re back on the same one.”

Connor smiles. “Dates sound good. See your face for once instead of having to deal with you over text.”

“I’m an excellent texter,” he says.

“But your face is prettier.”

Nuge is a better driver than Connor because he doesn’t look away from the road though he does smile. “Guess that proves I was right about your flirting.”

“Hey!”

Nuge laughs, and Connor finds it really hard to be mad at his chirp. If Connor could imagine a moment where his heart would leave his chest to find his lover, he’d probably imagine a moment like this with just the two of them sequestered away from the world, Nuge smiling enough to show off his dimples and driving him home.  Connor aches to reach out and touch him, but he’s scared to shatter the moment.

The drive to Hallsy’s takes less time than Connor would like it too. Nuge parks the car and the moment is over without him having done anything. Nuge finally looks at him, and Connor wishes he could just ask him what he sees.

Nuge unbuckles his seatbelt, places a hand underneath Connor’s chin, and his hand is cold from the winter air and sends a shiver down Connor’s spine. He leans over and gives Connor a soft, quick kiss. Connor wants to follow after him, but Nuge’s hand keeps him where he is. Nuge drops his hand as he pulls away, almost unthinkingly brushing his hand along Connor’s neck.

“Hey! You better not be making out in that car!”

Connor’s mortified to see Hallsy shouting at them from the front door because this is honestly worse than anything Cam has done to embarrass him. Nuge turns back to look at him and asks, “You wanna make out to piss him off?”

Connor wonders faintly if Nuge is maybe a smirky guy after all. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”

Nuge tilts his head. “Another time then.”

“Yeah,” Connor says, hoping so. He opens the door, but before he gets out he turns back to Nuge and quickly plants a kiss on his cheek. He catches Nuge’s smile through the window after he’s shut the door.

He heads up to the front door under Hallsy’s watchful gaze. He waves goodbye to Nuge before heading inside.

“You better not be making any bad choices while I have to watch over you,” Hallsy grumbles as he shuts the door.

Connor rolls his eyes because he’s pretty sure Hallsy’s made worse decisions than he has. He heads up to his room because he’s pretty sure he’s had enough excitement for one night though he is very tempted to bu Dylan into waking up and forcing him to hear the good news. He strips out of his suit and goes to grab something to sleep in. He freezes. A little brown heart sits on the edge of his dresser.

He drops his head and sighs. He has a feeling he knows exactly where his heart is, and he wonders if it’s worth the effort of trying to keep switching them back.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
